12.7 Biphased element and objects

Biphased objects are composed of biphased elements or/and are drawn differently dependent on the phase (DRAFT or FINAL) of QW-Editor and are available only in QW-3D. Let us recall, that in Section E 3.3 we considered three possible types of monophased elements:

<type> - type of element: 0 – simple element, 5 - bottom of combined element, 6 - cover of combined element.

Biphase elements may be drawn by declaring one of three other possible types: 10 – simple biphased element, 15 - bottom of combined biphased element, 16 - cover of combined biphased element. Previously used monophased elements were enforcing a sublayer of the FDTD grid at its bottom and top. Contrary to that, biphased elements do not enforce any mesh snapping in the DRAFT phase of QW-Editor operation. The DRAFT phase is used to set the proper distribution of mesh sublayers. Then in the FINAL phase the biphased elements are drawn in a way to fit the mesh.

Syntax of commands used in biphased objects

·       SLICINGPHASE - Function returning 0 when QW-Editor is in the DRAFT phase and 1 when QW-Editor is in the FINAL phase.

·       MESHINDEX (<level>) - A function returning:

The ordinal number of the sublayer of FDTD mesh situated most closely at or below level (if there is an FDTD mesh at or below level),

-1    (if there is an FDTD mesh but situated above level),

-2    (if there is no FDTD mesh).

·       MESH (<n>) - A function returning the level at which the n-th sublayer of the FDTD mesh is situated. The sublayers are counted up with the lowest sublayer numbered 0.

·       EXPANDMESH (<lowerlevel>,<upperlevel>) – Expands mesh limits in z-direction between lowerlevel, and upperlevel to allow direct drawing of biphased objects in the FINAL phase of the Editor without previous drawing in the DRAFT phase. It does not work when direct mesh limits are enforced by the user (using Setup-Mesh-Mesh boundaries). Attention: side effect of EXPANDMESH command is immediate mesh creation.

·       SETSUSPFLAGS (<draw_suspended>,<skip_EXPANDMESH>,<slicing_phase>) - Sets internal QW‑Editor flags. Arguments are Boolean values:

<draw_ suspended> - 0 or 1; if 1 the next elements will obtain suspended flag

<skip_EXPANDMESH> - 0 or 1; if 1 the EXPANDMESH command will be ignored

<slicing_phase> - 0 or 1;

if 1 changes the phase of QW-Editor to FINAL, (without modifying and redrawing project like  button);

if 0 the QW-Editor switches to DRAFT phase, (without modifying and redrawing project like  button)

Go to next Controlling the mesh chapter.

Back to Syntax of the User Defined Object (UDO) language chapter.